Northern announces dates for rundown of ‘Pacer’ fleet

The planned hand-back dates for Northern’s fleet of Class 142 and 144 ‘Pacers’ have been revealed.

Its days now numbered, Northern ‘Pacer’ No. 142043 arrives at Grindleford with the 10.49 Manchester Piccadilly to Sheffield on July 30. Graham Nuttall

The Class 144 units will be eliminated first, with the two-car sets being removed from service by January 5, 2019, and the 10 three-car examples due to be released just under three months later. This will allow time for the units to undergo conversion to Class 144E ‘Evolution’ prior to the end of the year if it were decided to transfer them to another franchise to replace stock which is not DDA compliant, such as the 15 Class 142s in South Wales.